Ursuline creates ‘magnificent space’ for budding artists

By AMANDA TONOLI

atonoli@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

Ursuline High School is sporting a newly renovated art room and program this year.

The $175,000 project resulted in what Principal Matthew Sammartino and assistant Principal Maggie Matune call a magnificent space.

“It provides a great experience for the kids,” Matune said. “All of the best resources are available to them.”

The spacious room is decked out with new professional-grade materials, lighting, flooring and cabinets.

“It’s immaculate,” said Alana Campbell, art teacher. “They have room to navigate and can spread themselves out. It gives them room to just be.”

Sophomore student Lucia Naples said the new space and new materials are better for her artistic talents.

“I have a lot of creativity and being able to express myself through art and different mediums is great,” she said.

Student Duane Leggett appreciates the new supplies.

“I like the different projects we do, and the sculpting opportunities we have now,” he said. “We can do art in different ways.”

Students will have the opportunity to do art in different ways through a number of new courses offered next school year. These courses will include printmaking, Advanced Placement (college prep) studio art, new media art and a newly designed sculpture and ceramics course.

In addition to the new art room this year, students got to enroll in a digital photography class with a new lab of 30 Macs.

Gianna Occhibove, a senior student who is learning Photoshop techniques to manipulate images, plans to take the skills she’s learning now onto her post-high school life.

“I’m going to college for digital marketing so this helped me learn how to make things more appealing,” she said.

That’s a benefit of the growing art program, said Matune.

“With these types of skills – the way job market is going – skills are so translatable to any field,” she said. “We are just keeping up with the times and making changes as necessary.”

Students’ new artwork and work from various other programs will be showcased during Ursuline’s annual open house from 1 to 3:30 p.m. Feb. 10.

“At Ursuline we are a college-prep school, and we believe in importance of arts and do a lot to support and encourage our students in them,” Sammartino said.